In
Short: Christopher Nolan's prequel, "Batman Begins,"
tells the story of young Bruce Wayne's transformation
into the legendary Batman, but other than
violence and visuals, the movie has little
to boast.

There
have been several Batman movies, but for the first time
we learn why and how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) becomes
Batman, and where he gets all his gadgets and the famous
Batmobile. Young Bruce concentrates his anger over the
double murder of his parents into the intense physical
and mental training by the mysterious League of Shadows
in China. His mentor Ducard (Liam Neeson) declares him
ready after Bruce finally accepts to decapitate a criminal
with a sword. (Is there some “Kill Bill” floating
in the air here?) This first part of the movie is partially
shot in Iceland where the scenery is striking at some
points.

Bruce
returns to Gotham after seven years, during which he had
been declared dead by his faithful butler (Michael Caine)
to save his interests in his father’s company. We
all know the rest of the story. He finds a city devoured
by rampant crime and corruption organized by the not credible
Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). The movie gets its rhythm
from an avalanche of images, some very violent, and the
score, played at full volume to fill up the emptiness
of the screen.

Fortunately,
the photography is well done, including Gotham City, which
looks so real you wonder in what unknown megalopolis they
shot the movie. We regret that we couldn’t see the
fights better and Batman in detail fighting and killing
the hordes of opponents that are attacking him, but we
enjoyed the Batmobile car chase and the special effects.
The actors are not really performing during the 134 minutes
of the film. They are just there in front of us, giving
us flat text—thankfully Bruce is very attractive.
Very few jokes are punctuating the script. They make you
laugh only to release the stress induced by the violence.
When Bruce is being told that he has a nice car, his answer
is: “You should see my other car.” And two
"girlfriends" that we had not seen before pop
out of the car, one blonde, one brunette; a cliché?

We
certainly don’t recommend that you take your children
to view the masked crusader in his latest quest for justice,
helped by his childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes),
Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Lucius Fox (Morgan
Freeman).